Password Policies and Password Help for Argus Hospitality - What Do and How to Do It.

ℹ️ This article covers the password rules for Argus Hospitality staff accounts. It also explains what happens when you get locked out, how often you need to change your password, and the easiest way to come up with one you'll actually remember.

📋 The Rules at a Glance

💡 Make It a Passphrase

The easiest way to satisfy all these rules with something you'll actually remember is to use a passphrase — a sentence or short phrase, with spaces and punctuation.

Example: My dog is 6 years old.

That passphrase satisfies every rule above: 22 characters, uppercase + lowercase + a number + a special character, and easy to type. You don't need cryptic strings of symbols — you need length and variety.

Good passphrase ideas:

• A sentence about something only you would know: I parked in spot 47 once!
• A line from a song or movie with a twist: Frankly my dear, I love coffee 3x.
• A made-up fact: There are 8 ducks on my desk!

The point: length beats complexity. A 13-character mess of symbols is harder to remember than a 25-character sentence — and both satisfy the policy.

🔒 If You Get Locked Out

If you enter your password wrong 5 times in a row, your workstation will lock you out for 15 minutes.

Please do not call IT to unlock your computer. We can't help you go faster — the lockout is automatic and clears itself.

Instead:

1. Go for a coffee. Do something else. Step away.
2. After 15 minutes, come back and enter your password very slowly.
3. If it works, you were rushing or hitting Caps Lock. If it still doesn't work, you genuinely don't remember the password — submit a ticket.

In the end, the cold hard truth is this: if the computer isn't accepting your password, you are entering it wrong. The computer doesn't randomly forget.

📅 When Your Password Expires

Your password expires every 90 days.

You will be warned starting 30 days before the expiry date. Each time you sign in, Windows will pop up a reminder telling you how many days are left. As the date gets closer, these prompts become more frequent — they're easy to ignore at first, but they will not stop until you change the password (or it expires and forces you to change it on the spot).

Don't wait until the last minute. Change it the moment you start seeing the warnings, while you're at a workstation and not in a rush.

A few things worth knowing:

• Once you change it, all your devices need the new password too — workstations, phone (for email), VPN, etc.
• It can take up to 30 minutes for your other devices to start asking for the new password. The Argus server and Office 365 synchronize once every 30 minutes, so even Outlook on your workstation may not prompt immediately. This is normal — just sign in with the new password whenever you're asked.
• Don't try to "force" the sync by repeatedly entering the old password on your phone or other devices — that's a fast way to lock yourself out (5 wrong attempts and your account is locked for 15 minutes).
• If you let it expire, you'll be forced to change it before you can sign in. That's a bad moment to discover you can't think of a new passphrase — change it early.

🚫 What NOT to Do

• ❌ Don't reuse old passwords. The system remembers your last 10, so it will take roughly 900 days to cycle back to one you used before. That beerrulz1234! password you came up with in high school? Time to leave it behind.
• ❌ Don't write your password on a sticky note. Especially not stuck to your monitor or under your keyboard.
• ❌ Don't share your password. Not with co-workers, not with managers, not with IT. Argus IT will never ask you for your password. Anyone who does — including someone claiming to be IT — is phishing you.
• ❌ Don't use the same password for your Argus account and your personal accounts (banking, email, shopping, etc.).

🔄 How to Change Your Password

The easiest way to change your password while signed in to a workstation:

1. Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete.
2. Click Change a password.
3. Enter your current password, then your new password twice.
4. Click OK.

The new password takes effect immediately.

🆘 When to Submit a Ticket

Submit a ticket if:

• You're locked out and the 15-minute timer has passed and you still can't sign in.
• You genuinely don't remember your password and need a reset.
• Your password change won't go through (an error appears) when you try to set a new one.

Do not include your old or new password in the ticket — we'll reset it for you securely.

Related Articles

• Outlook Keeps Prompting for Password — First Steps (KB-130008)
• The Basics to Try When You Have a Problem (KB# 10001)
• How to Fill Out a Ticket (KB# 10002)

ArgusIT KB# 10005 | Original: April 9, 2019 (Vincent Kruggel) | Rebuilt: May 25, 2026